History Main / ICannotSelfTerminate

* Occurrs sometimes in ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'':

* In ''VideoGame/BioShock2'', Gilbert Alexander, a scientist who worked for Andrew Ryan, knowing what he will become, leaves behind pre-mutation audio logs, asking whoever finds them to kill him. When the player finds him, however, "Alex the Great," now mutated and trapped in in a containment tube, begs the player to spare his life.
** Augustus Sinclair, changed into a Alpha Series Big Daddy, and forced to obey Sofia Lamb's every command. He begs for you to stop him, and apologizes for not being able to help you anymore.
* ''Videogame/Borderlands2''

** In another example, Soma in ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaAriaOfSorrow'' and ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaDawnOfSorrow'' made Julius promise to kill him if he ever loses out to his SuperpoweredEvilSide. It's unusual in that it's the protagonist that makes the request.
*** If you get the BadEnding, Julius Mode is literally Julius [[MercyKill keeping his promise]].

* In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', the main character will encounter a Dalish elf who has turned into a werewolf. Her transformation has left her in excruciating pain and she will beg the character to end her suffering. If you do, she will thank you. If you don't, she will attack and force you to kill her.

* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'': The SerialKiller Kelder Vanard asks for this when you finally catch up for him, because he's too mentally ill to stop himself from killing elven children, but ''just sane enough'' to realize how horrible his actions are and there's no other way to stop him since his magistrate father will cover up his crimes.

** In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'''s ''Bloodmoon'' expansion, Ulfgar the Unending is looking for a way into Sovngarde, the Nordic paradise afterlife. He recruits the player to help him find the way in. As it turns out, you must die in battle. And seeing as how the player is the only person around badass enough to defeat Ulfgar in combat, he asks him/her to do this]].

* In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', the recurring series character Harold has completely merged with his parasitic tree Bob, and tells the player to put him out of his misery, although the Treeminders want to keep him alive.

* Occurred sometimes in ''Franchise/FinalFantasy''

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'': Tidus' father, Jecht aka the monstrous Sin, although it doesn't come as a surprise to Tidus, who spent most of the game coming to terms with the fact that he'll have to kill his father. Still, even though Tidus always claimed his dad was an idiot, it hurts him when Jecht asks him to do it quick, because there's not much of his own mind left.
*** And then the other Aeons follow suit as Yu Yevon possesses them one by one.

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance'' and ''VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn'':
** Bertram, a boss in ''Path of Radiance'', enters battle with incoherent babbling that seems to be a plea for death. The heroes don't comply, and in ''Radiant Dawn'', they are able to free "Bertram" from the influence of the same PsychoSerum that produced the Feral Ones--he's really Elinica's uncle, Duke Renning, who was thought to be dead.

* Prometheus repeatedly begs Kratos to kill him to end his cycle of torment in ''VideoGame/GodOfWarII''.
** According to the novelization of ''[[VideoGame/GodOfWarPS4 God of War (2018)]]'', this is the reason why Kratos survived his attempted suicide at the end of ''VideoGame/GodOfWarIII'': an unknown force was preventing him from dying by his own hand.
* In ''[[VideoGame/{{Gradius}} Gradius Gaiden]]'', when the Deltatry in Formidable Guardians is defeated, it uses its two Intruders to destroy itself because it cannot explode after the core is destroyed.
* In ''VideoGame/DotHackGU'', Ovan has a plan that will solve all the problems plaguing The World. Problem is, said plan [[ThanatosGambit requires him to die]], and the AIDA possessing him will not allow him to commit suicide. Thus, he spends the series trying to pull a SuicideByCop.
* In ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'', Gordon comes across humans who have been taken over by headcrabs. Though hard to make out, they beg for death even as the headcrab forces them to attack the player.
** They're actually whimpering, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhD-vd7PXY4 "GOD HELP, HELP ME!"]] backwards, and damn if it isn't creepy as hell.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Killer7}}'', Ulmeyda publicly challenges the titular assassins to kill him. When they reach him, he reveals that he's terrified at the thought of becoming a Heaven's Smile and called on them to kill him in case he becomes one. He promptly does when the Army intervenes, and his Heaven's Smile form is the BossBattle of the chapter.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Thief}} 2'', you encounter a near dead and more then half frozen Pagan. After speaking to the Pagan, he asks you to do one last thing for him: end his pain. Garrett calls the Pagan his friend just before he kills him. This is notable as just about the only time in the game when you're permitted to kill a human on Expert difficulty.

* In ''Warhammer 40,000: VideoGame/FireWarrior'' Admrial Constantine (voiced by Creator/BrianBlessed!) begs you to shoot him before he turns into a Chaos Spawn. Demon-possessed Brian Blessed just asked you to shoot him.
* In an astonishing example of loyalty, Asgard [[SuicideByCop battles your party]] after he saves them from [[TheManBehindTheMan Beatrice]], just so he can get around his self-preservation programming and follow his masters to hell in ''VideoGame/{{Wild ARMs 3}}''.
* In ''Videogame/WolfensteinTheNewOrder'', one of the bosses is a MiniMecha controlled by the brain of whoever you nominated to be [[MadDoctor Strasse's]] test subject during the SadisticChoice at the start of the game. It will beg you to find a way to destroy it; B.J. ejects the glass tube containing the brain, and shoots it at point-blank range.

** ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'' has the title character insisting on this, in order that the technology inside him be destroyed completely. He has been sent back to the past to prevent [[ApocalypseHow Judgment Day]], which partially means destroying the salvaged remains of [[Film/TheTerminator the first Terminator]] that is being reversed engineered. Because he can't leave ''any'' traces of future technology for fear of the risks it poses to the future, he also has to ensure that he himself is destroyed once his mission is complete. Because of his programming, he can't do the deed himself, meaning that John Conner, who has come to view him as a father figure, [[ShootTheDog has to do it.]]

If the character is robotic, this may occur due to influence from [[ThreeLawsOfRobotics Asimov's Laws]]. Specifically, a robot may not harm itself, or through inaction allow itself to be harmed, unless it is in direct opposition with the first two laws. Even when not following the hierarchical laws of robotics, it could still occur if a robot is simply programmed for self-preservation.

* In ''Literature/TheShipWho Sang'', Kira is a DeathSeeker whose arms are marked with scars from failed attempts at suicide, and has been barred from the few worlds in Central Systems territory where she can seek euthanasia. On [[CultColony Alioth]], she finds a [[SapientShip brainship]] that had rammed herself into a volcano, intact but stuck. This is the SL-732, who on hearing what she thinks is her dead [[BrainsAndBrawn brawn's]] voice babbles "Seber? I'm trapped. I was thrown off course when the edge of the volcano blew. I tried to die. [[BungledSuicide I tried to die, too.]]"

* In Season 4 of ''Series/{{Angel}}'', the titular character asks his son Connor to kill him if his SuperpoweredEvilSide gets free. He does this in ''private'' though, so when it inevitably does the others think he still just wants to kill Angel.
** Angel has pretty much asked this of anyone who's ever worked for/with him. Most of them kind of suck following through on it. Wesley is pretty much the only person Angel thinks might be able to follow through on this request and is one of the reasons Angel trusts him.

** In "[[Recap/BabylonFiveS03E17WarWithoutEndPart2 War Without End, Part 2]] Londo, under the long-term control of an alien mind-controlling parasite, gets it drunk and asks his old foe to kill him, preventing the alien from forcing him to thwart the heroes' daring escape. "I am as tired of my life as you are." His old foe turned friend G'kar complies, but the parasite forces Londo to kill him as well. And thus Londo's prophetic vision of his death at G'kar's hands finally comes to pass.
** Averted in "[[Recap/BabylonFiveS04E06IntoTheFire Into the Fire]]." Despite having destroyed all the Shadows on Centauri Prime, the Vorlons are still intent on destroying that planet because of Londo's presence on that world. Londo asks Vir to kim him and show the Vorlons that was done. But before Vir can do that the planet killer moves off, summoned to Coriana by the other Vorlons.

* Mitchell, in ''Series/BeingHumanUK'', ''begs'' his best friend George to stake his heart before his HorrorHunger makes him kill anyone else. After they introduce the next season's BigBad by way of him threatening to kill George if Mitchell doesn't leave with him (and help him commit further horrible crimes), George does it. Of course, [[ContractualImmortality he'll probably be back]]...
* In Norwegian comedy series ''Series/BrodreneDal'', [[Literature/RobinsonCrusoe Robinson Caruso]] (that's not mispelled) tried to kill himself in his youth by drowning. Unfortunately, the place he chose was particularily shallow, so he kept walking for a while. The tide did come eventually, and we don't know what happened after (his assistant was vacuuming as he told the story), but he clearly never died.

** In the episode "Reckoner", a judge suffering from terminal cancer hires a [[ProfessionalKiller hitman]] to carry out a series of {{Vigilante Execution}}s on people he considered {{Karma Houdini}}s (mostly for crimes against children), culminating in the man who killed the judge's wife while driving drunk. After the last criminal is killed, he admits to the BAU that there is still one more name on his hit list... and is promptly shot dead by the hitman.
** In the episode "Doubt", a clearly depressed young woman takes desperate steps to insure that the (supposed) killer of the week stays out of prison in the hopes that she will become a victim of his, as she can't bring herself to end her own life.

* In the third-season episode of ''Series/{{Dexter}}'', "Easy as Pie", Dexter does this for Camilla Figg, who is suffering terribly from lung cancer and has been told by doctors she's going to live at least another month. Because she's Catholic, she can't kill herself, or she'll go to Hell; but Dexter, who isn't religious, can kill her. She begs him to help her, and he injects a lethal poison into a piece of key lime pie and feeds it to her. To cap it off, he tells her just before she dies that he killed Rudy/Brian, and she gives him her blessing for doing so.

* Near the end of the second season of ''Series/{{Farscape}}'', Crichton incoherently rambles about how he's trying to do something but the mind-control chip in his head won't let him and vaguely gestures at a gun amidst scattered chess pieces. When his best buddy D'Argo presses the matter, ("Do WHAT, John!?") Crichton asks D'Argo to kill him.

* On ''Series/{{Haven}}'', this is [[spoiler: Duke's]] fate in season 5. He is turned into a walking Trouble bomb, and asks Nathan to kill him to avoid hurting anyone. He is afraid to do it himself because doing so might release all of the Troubles within him at once.
* In the fifth season of ''Franchise/{{Highlander}}'' Duncan accidentally kills Richie because he has been deluded with illusions, and considered him a demon. He asks Methos for it, but he rejects it.
** In the third season, it's the other way round. Methos asks Duncan because [[BigBad Kallas]] is following him. And Methos would rather have Duncan get his powers than Big Bad. But Duncan refuses, and can defeat Kallas.
* Jack Denton from ''Series/JessicaJones2015'' had a stroke after being [[CompellingVoice brainwashed]] into [[OrganTheft donating his kidneys (plural) to Kilgrave]], leaving him unable to walk or talk, stuck to a dialysis machine. When Jessica visits him to learn about what happened to him, she gives him a piece of paper and a pen. When he writes "KIL", she assumes he's trying to write "KILGRAVE". He was writing "KILL ME".

** Richard enlists Jack's help in committing suicide in "Dr. Linus", since he cannot do it himself. It turns out that Jack can't commit suicide either, so he stays by Richard to stop either from dying.

-->'''Prisoner:''' Kill me you savages, you heathens cover are you devils, kill me! '''''NOW!!!''''' Ashadu an l? il?ha illall?h! ''[beat]'' Kill me please. I beg of you.
* ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' own iconic Zordon is a rather justified example: he wanted to commit suicide by way of a HeroicSacrifice in ''Series/PowerRangersInSpace'', but needed to convince someone else to help him do it as he lacked, you know, ''[[OracularHead limbs]]''.

* ''Franchise/StarTrek''
** One episode of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' sees Worf paralyzed from the waist down after an accident, Worf is so depressed by his inability to be a [[TheWorfBarrage warrior]] that he asks Riker to kill him using a ritual knife, as dictated by Klingon custom. Riker refuses to kill his friend, and Worf tries to browbeat Riker by calling him a coward, Riker counters with knowledge of the tradition by pointing out that it's the eldest son's duty. Considering that his son is a young child raised by humans, this convinces Worf to try the experimental surgery to fix his back.
** Called back in ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' when Worf's brother asks Worf to kill him in the same way. In Kurn's case, however, it's a cultural barrier rather than a physical limitation preventing him from doing it himself; for Klingons, taking your own life is dishonorable (unless the alternative is greater dishonor, such as when facing capture by an enemy), but the ritual assisted suicide is considered an honorable way to die.
** In the ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' episode ''[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS2E18DeathWish Death Wish]]'' a member of the Q Continuum wishes to commit suicide, and requires the assistance of the ''Voyager'' crew to do so.
* Subverted in ''Series/{{Supernatural}}''. In season two episode "Born Under A Bad Sign" Sam has just killed a hunter and is pleading with Dean (who [[BigBrotherInstinct obviously]] can't) to kill him before he gets any worse. It turns out that Sam is possessed and the demon inside him just wants to break Dean as much as possible and hopefully get Sam killed in the process. At the end of season four in "When the Levee Breaks", while suffering withdrawal from demon blood, Sam tells Bobby to shoot, moving the gun's muzzle to his own heart, if Bobby wants to help him.
** Played straight in "Heart". Sam's one night stand was a werewolf, but they cured her... except not. There's no cure and she'd already killed a few people, so she asks Sam to shoot her instead. Ouch.
* In ''Series/TerminatorTheSarahConnorChronicles'' episode "Ourselves Alone", Cameron's continued uncertainty about her own ability to control her actions following the damage to her chip prompts her to build a self-destruct device. She gives this to John, saying that she can't self-terminate, so she'll trust him with the device in case she goes rogue again.
* In ''Series/Titans2018'' episode "Blackfire", the sister of Starfire begging her to terminate herself, because she has lost her powers and don't want to be reduced to living in a prison.
* Beth, in the ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' episode "Sleeper", couldn't actually kill herself because of her position as a sleeper, but because of the grief she'd caused herself, she took Gwen hostage to force the team to kill her.

* The early FOX series ''Series/Werewolf1987'' would have been one episode long if Eric's roommate had committed suicide rather than invoked this trope. Eric's failure to comply fast enough when his friend transformed is how he got bitten himself.
* ''Series/TheXFiles''
** Episode "The Walk": The killer of the week used his psychic powers [[RevengeByProxy to kill his victims' families first]] and then prevented them from committing suicide. His victims survived jumping to a bathtub with scalding hot water or shooting themselves in the head.
** The MonsterOfTheWeek from "Tithonus" was a man who gained immortality [[WhoWantsToLiveForever but became very tired of life]]. He tried to kill himself by pills, cutting his wrists or jumping off bridges. Nothing worked. Until Scully was mortally wounded and he died in her place ([[EpilepticTrees possibly]] passing his immortality onto her in the process)

[[folder:Puppet Shows]]
* Parodied in the ''Series/LambChopsPlayAlong'' episode "Charlie Horse Western." Charlie Horse and Lamb Chop are making their own Western movie with Lamb Chop as a Native American warrior and Charlie as her faithful steed; in a battle Charlie is "shot" and begs Lamb Chop to "kill" him. She pantomimes annihilating him with a machine gun.
-->'''Charlie Horse:''' What are you, a fanatic or something?
[[/folder]]

* ''ComicBook/RogueTrooper'' encounters a subverted version of this trope. Having thought that he was the last remaining super-soldier, he is amazed to find a much older prototype living as a hermit on the poison-choked planet Rogue roams. The old man says he is waiting to die and that he feels like nature is going to take its course very soon. When enemy troops approach, Rogue's friends - personality-chips of fallen comrades embedded in his helmet and gun -- vote to leave the old man to his fate. Rogue declines -- the old man wants to die with ''dignity'' -- and his already impressive abilities are ramped up to eleven in order to massacre the enemy patrol and give the old man something Rogue hopes to have himself one day.
* In an old ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'' comic, Batman is possessed by Manuel, the ghost of a Satan-worshipping pirate, who's trying to bring himself and those stuck in purgatory back to the real world. Batman pleads with ComicBook/TheFlash to kill him before that happens. Luckily, the Flash chooses to TakeAThirdOption.
* In ''ComicBook/BatmanHolyTerror'', one of the subjects of the experiments to replicate ComicBook/{{Aquaman}} was a manta ray with a vaguely human head and enough intelligence to realize that it's an abomination of science. According to Barry, it has tried repeatedly to kill itself, but since it lacks proper limbs, the most it can do is smash its head against the walls of the tank repeatedly, which isn't enough to kill it.
* In ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' Season 10 Dracula pleads with Buffy to kill him before he fully transforms into the Old One Maloker again.
* Anika Wells of ''ComicBook/CleanRoom'' was abducted and subjected to medical experimentation, the result of which was a decade-long withering of half of her body leaving her bedbound. She begs Astrid for death since she lacks the physical ability to attempt suicide.
* A story arc of ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'' has the Thing, being possessed by Dr. Doom, put the Torch in a death hold. Doom is laughing that the only way to stop him is to kill him -- that is to say, kill Ben. Ben manages to wrest just enough control to tearfully tell Reed to do it. For once, Reed gets stuck in a situation where he can't TakeAThirdOption.
* In ''ComicBook/AForce'', during the events of ''ComicBook/CivilWarII'', Nico Minoru is forced to go on the run ''again'' after Ulysses predicts that she will kill a woman named Alice, despite not knowing anyone by that name. It later turns out Alice has been infected with some sort of alien virus that has turned her into a bug monster and is rapidly spreading to the rest of her hometown. Naturally, Alice wasn't happy about what she had become and what she was unintentionally doing to everyone around her, but was unable to kill herself, and thus begged Nico to do it.
* In ''ComicBook/GhostRider'', when Lucifer tricks Ghost Rider into bringing him to Earth, Lucifer's essence is split into six hundred and sixty-six fragments, which possess bodies that died around the same time as they broke out of Hell. As each fragment dies, the remaining fragments will become stronger, to the extent that only Ghost Rider will be able to kill the last few Lucifer fragments; an angelic being who appears to Ghost Rider reveals that the Lucifers cannot simply kill ''themselves'' as suicide would damn them back to Hell due to it being a mortal sin, and Lucifer would obviously not choose to go back to Hell after spending millennia trying to get to Earth.
* Inverted in French comic ''ComicBook/LesLegendaires''. The BigBad points out that he's a god. In this verse, [[TakesOneToKillOne only gods can kill gods]], and [[HereThereWereDragons other gods have deserted this planet]]. So, he states that the only hope for the heroes is that he would suicide. The loophole was to kill him with a sword forged with his own blood (actually the blood of the guy he possess the body).
* A similar example to the above occurs in ''Comicbook/{{Lucifer}}''. Due to a promise she broke as a temple maiden, a Babylonian woman is punished with immortality; as a particular condition of the immortality, every day for the last four thousand years has featured her miscarrying her fetus. She ends up seeking out a bargaining chip for Lucifer, who revokes the immortality and watches [[NoImmortalInertia as she blows away to dust.]]
* In ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989'', retired DCU hero Rainie Blackwell (a.k.a. Element Girl), who feels alienated from humanity due to her transmutation powers, longs to kill herself but can't because regardless of the method she chose her body would automatically transmute itself into another substance. Death of the Endless, having failed to talk Rainie out of dying before her time, suggests she ask the Egyptian god Ra, the source of her superpower, to handle it. Ra silently tells her to look directly at him, whereupon she disintegrates.

* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' villain Kraven the Hunter CameBackWrong during the ''Grim Hunt'' storyline, being unable to die unless he killed "the Spider" or "the Spider" killed him, so he's been trying to get Spider-Man to pull a SuicideByCop by trying to force him to kill him. Ultimately, in the storyline ''ComicBook/{{Hunted}}'', he ultimately finds a bit of LoopholeAbuse to finally get his wish.

* In part two of the classic Alan Moore "Imaginary Tale" ''ComicBook/WhateverHappenedToTheManOfTomorrow'' which brought an extra-continuity close to UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|of Comic Books}} ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'' mythos, Lex Luthor's body is essentially possessed by the disembodied head of Brainiac, which he is forced to wear like a rather macabre helmet. When confronted by a temporarily superpowered Lana Lang (who, pre-''ComicBook/{{Crisis|OnInfiniteEarths}}'', he had some history with), Luthor valiantly struggles against Brainiac's control long enough to beg her: "kill me!", rather than remain the living computer's meat-puppet. Lana complies and snaps Luthor's neck... but (unfortunately for Jimmy Olsen) even the death of his host body wasn't enough to keep Brainiac down, as he manages to continue stimulating the corpse's nerves and muscles for a while longer, Luthor's head grotesquely lolling to one side on its broken spine. Eventually the rigor mortis catches up with him, forcing the malignant robot head to dismount and crawl after Superman with futile murderous intent before finally expiring.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'' episode "Jack And The Lava Monster," the titular "monster" turns out to be a Norse warrior who was [[WhoWantsToLiveForever cursed]] by Aku; placed in a [[AndIMustScream crystal prison]]. He eventually gained the power to control the earth around him, and created a DeathCourse for the purpose of finding the warrior who could defeat him in battle, allowing him to finally pass on to Valhalla with the rest of his [[TrueCompanions comrades]]. Most telling is his anguished cry of "I ''must'' be defeated honorably! I ''cannot'' let up!" during his fight with Jack. The Samurai grants his wish.

* ''Literature/{{Ringworld}}'': In ''The Ringworld Engineers'', Teela Brown has become a Protector whose descendant-protecting instincts are paradoxically making her try to stop the main characters from saving the Ringworld. She is, however, just rational enough to provoke the main characters into killing her so they can get on with the job. It helps slightly that Louis is literally the only creature on Ringworld who is technically the same species as she is, so her protective instincts are ''slightly'' stronger towards him then they are towards the humanoid-but-not-quite-''human'' Ringworld natives. She doesn't feel any instinctive compunctions to keep Chmeee alive, though. Luckily, he's a half-ton of obligate carnivore from a {{Proud Warrior Race|Guy}}, and therefore no slouch himself. She still half-kills him while desperately trying not to fight as effectively as she can, though.

** In ''ComicBook/UncannyXMen'' Annual #6, Rachel Van Helsing (from ''ComicBook/TheTombOfDracula'') is turned into a vampire by {{Dracula}}. Throwing off Dracula's mind control long enough to (temporarily) kill him with a spear, she then asks ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} to [[MercyKill kill her]] with a wooden stake. He does so.
** In ''ComicBook/{{X 23}}'' #11, Laura asks [[FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire Jubilee]] to kill her if she succumbs to the "trigger scent" to prevent her from killing innocent people. Predictably, Jubilee doesn't follow through and it leads to an IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight.

 * In ''Warhammer 40,000: VideoGame/FireWarrior'' Admrial Constantine (voiced by Creator/BrianBlessed!) begs you to shoot him before he turns into a Chaos Spawn. Demon-possessed Brian Blessed just asked you to shoot him.

* In ''Warhammer 40,000: VideoGame/FireWarrior'' Admrial Constantine (voiced by Creator/BrianBlessed!) begs you to shoot him before he turns into a Chaos Spawn. Demon-possessed Brian Blessed just asked you to shoot him.

** ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'' has the title character insisting on this, in order that the technology inside him be destroyed completely. He has been sent back to the past to prevent [[ApocalypseHow Judgment Day]], which partially means destroying the salvaged remains of [[Film/{{Terminator}} the first Terminator]] that is being reversed engineered. Because he can't leave ''any'' traces of future technology for fear of the risks it poses to the future, he also has to ensure that he himself is destroyed once his mission is complete. Because of his programming, he can't do the deed himself, meaning that John Conner, who has come to view him as a father figure, [[ShootTheDog has to do it.]]